“To promote growth and equitable development, the Union government should share with us half of the taxes collected in Karnataka,” Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said in Haveri on Sunday.
“Karnataka collects over ₹4.3 lakh crore every year. But what we get back is a pittance. We are getting only ₹13 against every ₹100 we contribute to the Central tax kitty. This is gross injustice and it should stop,” he said.
He also demanded that the Centre share money from the various cess and surcharges collected by the various Central departments. “The Centre collects ₹5.5 lakh crore by cess and surcharges. But it does not share them with the States. This is gross injustice,” he claimed.
He said that if all the MPs from the State, including the 25 BJP MPs, had jointly protested in front of the houses of the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister, the injustice could have been corrected.
“This is not new. A similar situation prevailed during former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai’s time. I told him that we deserved to get ₹11,495 crore and urged him to seek more funds from the Centre that were legally due to Karnataka. But he did not ask. Instead, he began shouting at me saying I lacked the courage and guts to speak up,” the Chief Minister said.
He urged the people not to re-elect the BJP MPs. “Why should such leaders who have failed to do their duties go back to Parliament? All the BJP leaders from Karnataka have lost the courage to speak about the injustice done to Karnataka. The BJP MPs just nod their heads in front of their bosses and come back silently,” he said.
“Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka, has repeatedly refused to give our due share of grants. What is more, she has blatantly lied that the Centre does not owe anything to the State. I ask her why is she lying? Isn’t this a betrayal of the trust of Kannadigas?” he said.
The Chief Minister said that the guarantee schemes have increased the State’s revenue. GST has seen a growth by 18%. He said that over 155 crore women have travelled by bus for free under the Shakti scheme. “Even Dharmadhikari Veerandra Heggade has said that offerings at Dharmasthala have increased due to the Shakti scheme,” he said.
“Under two of the five guarantees, money is directly deposited into the bank accounts of the people without any intermediaries. We are working towards empowering the poor. We have taken a bold step towards poverty alleviation. In fact, it is us who are implementing Prime Minister’s vision of Sab Ka Saat Sab Ka Vikas to ensure inclusive development of people of all religions and castes in its true sense,” he said.
